


Chosen Kin

by FiresFromOurHearts



Series: Small Harry Potter Things [41]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Hogwarts Founders Era, Human Sacrifice, I've got no idea what time period that was but who cares, It's sometimes you and a giant snake but it works, Near-Death Experience, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Not what you were expecting, Salazar didn't live in a nice time period, Snakes just adopt people apparently, i'm sure - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:02:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28704858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiresFromOurHearts/pseuds/FiresFromOurHearts
Summary: Long before Salazar meets the other founders of Hogwarts, he is only a child. A child left to die in the forest. A child that a snake finds. A child that a snake adopts.
Relationships: Basilisk & Salazar Slytherin
Series: Small Harry Potter Things [41]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/719196
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Chosen Kin

Salazar doesn’t realise what’s happening until too late. The village had been celebrating, hosting a feast, saying that the gods had told them how to defeat the monster that was attacking the villagers. Salazar, only eight years, had thought it was a grand thing. The bonfire had roared in the middle of the square and there had been enough food to go around and it looked like everyone was happy.

He takes the drink one of the village elders hands him. It’s cool, trickling down his throat, and it tastes fruity but he can’t quite determine what the taste is. It’s only an hour or so later, when the world has become woozy and he can’t quite balance on his legs anymore that he realises something isn’t right.

His head lolls, rolling, as someone picks him up. “Hey,” he slurs, trying to move his limbs, but they seem to have had weights added to them. He’s limp, and he’s worried now too, even as his mind continues to struggle against whatever it is that they gave him—a drug of some kind.

“Easy kid,” someone says, and they sound so soft and so heartbroken but certain, strong in their beliefs. Fear is gripping Salazar’s heart, seizing his limbs even as they remain sluggish and frozen. “It’ll soon be over.”

“What o’er?”

“You’ll save us all kid.”

That doesn’t answer Salazar’s question in the least, but he can barely speak, can’t move, and so he lies, helpless in this villager’s arm and can only wait to see what lies ahead.

They take him to a clearing deep in the forest where a single tree grows. It’s a place that all the villagers steer clear off, citing legends and stories. Salazar has been here frequently though—it’s a calm place, a peaceful place, even if it’s not quite… normal. But Salazar isn’t quite normal either, not that he can tell any of the villagers that. He saw what happened to his sister when she was outed as a witch—and he also saw his sister vanish before the flames consumed her entirely.

The villagers’ hands are kind as they place him leaning against the train. Their hands are gentle as his limbs are shifted around. They are careful as they place chains around his legs and arms, and Salazar _hates_.

“Maybe you can calm the monster,” the villager who carried him here says, the last one to leave. “If you can’t, maybe your sacrifice will. It has to.”

 _And what about me?_ Salazar wants to cry because it’s not fair. He never realised that his reputation for calming animals would lead to this. It’s not fair! He wants to live!

Whatever they drugged him with is starting to fade as his mind feels less foggy, his limbs are starting to respond to him, straining against the cold chains that keep him restrained. Once again, his magic is beginning to crackle beneath his skin, but it seems unable to do anything.

If only his magic had prevented this, but that’s not how it’s work. Before his sister had disappeared, she’d whispered stories and knowledge to him. She’d asked him to come and now he’s paying for his refusal—he might just die. Die because he didn’t want to leave the only home he knew, die because he was too afraid to say yes.

The noise has begun to fade and Salazar swallows as he realises the forest has become silent. There’s something out there. He doesn’t know what, doesn’t what to know, but he shakes, trembling against the tree, the chains cutting into his skin. There’s… a sliding sound, of some kind. Like snakes slithering against the autumn leaves, but louder. Like the snake is bigger.

Salazar slams his eyes shut. He doesn’t want to see how he dies. Doesn’t want to be in pain. Oh gods, he hopes it happens quick!

“They have left a hatchling,” someone says, voice slow and deep. Salazar’s heart pounds against his chest.

His magic spikes and with a yank, the chains break, and he falls forward, onto his hands and knees. He huddles backward, pressing his back to the tree trunk and pulling his legs close to his torso. His heart pounds, rapid-fast, and his breathing is quick and his throat is so try and he’s going to die here and-

“They abandon a hatchling. But why?”

“Are you- Are you going to kill me?” Salazar asks. And his voice sounds weak, trembling. He didn’t know the monster could speak but maybe all monsters can. Salazar’s sister certainly could and they called her a monster too. But if Salazar’s sister was a monster, she was a very kind one. Maybe this one is too?

There’s a shift, the sound of scales scraping against leaves, then the monster says, “No, little one. I am not going to kill you. We are kin of a kind, you and I. You can open your eyes, I will not hurt you.”

Gulping, Salazar peeks open one eye, squinting into the forest. In front of him, there’s a massive snake coiled up. She’s beautiful, forest-green scales with blue streaks and she shimmers in what little light there is. She’s massive. Bigger than anything Salazar has ever seen before and he reckons she could eat three cows and still be hungry! Her eyes are closed—which is strange.

How could this creature have killed the villagers? Snakes are harmless unless you scare or threaten them, Salazar knows that much.

“What do you mean by that?” He asks. “Are you responsible for killing the villagers?”

The snake hissed, coiling herself tighter and waving her head. “They steal my eggs!” She hisses, voice harsh and Salazar trembles in the face of it. “They come and take my clutch and then come back to take more of my eggs! I was owed revenge!”

None of the snakes Salazar’s spoken to before had been capable of such complex ideas. Then again, all the snakes Salazar’s spoken to had been really small.

The snake lowers her head, eyes still firmly shut. “But we are kin, you and I, so that matters little. You speak our language and so you are snake-claimed.”

Salazar doesn’t really know what that means. “Are- Are you going to keep killing the villagers?”

The snake doesn’t answer straight away, before she hisses. A long thing that fades away. It kind of sounds sad, Salazar thinks. “No,” she decides. “The price has been paid and they have given you me.”

He doesn’t quite know what to make of all of this. But- But the villagers had left him here to die and they’d tried to kill his sister and they’d stole the eggs from this snake. And the snake’s claimed they’re kin though Salazar doesn’t quite understand how it works, but that means they’re family. And that means they look out for one another, Salazar’s sister taught him that.

“Okay,” he says.

Snakes can’t smile, but this one seems to. She lowers her great head and nudges him softly. He runs a hand over her smooth scales, and scrapes off little clumps of dirt that have gotten stuck there. “Come along,” she says. “Let’s go home. Hope on my back.”

Swallowing, Salazar does so. The snake begins to move, her body shifting beneath him. Before they leave the clearing, Salazar glances back. Back to the lone tree, to the broken chains, to where he almost died.

Then he looks ahead and never looks back again.

**Author's Note:**

> This was loosely based on that one line from Jungle Book 'we be of one blood ye and I'. Which is where the whole idea of the basilisk just adopting Salazar as kin came from.


End file.
